Many localities around the world provide a system for the public to rapidly request assistance in case of an emergency. For example, in the United States of America the 9-1-1 system may be used to request assistance from police, fire, or emergency medical services (EMS) first responders by simply dialing 911 on any telephone, including both landline and wireless telephones. The United Kingdom provides similar functionality through the 9-9-9 system. Other localities may provide similar functionality through locally known emergency phone numbers.
Typically, calls to the emergency phone number are routed to a call center that may also be referred to as a public safety access point (PSAP). Some roles of personnel at a PSAP can include call taker (e.g. answering incoming calls), dispatchers (e.g. dispatching first responders such as police, fire, and EMS), translator, coordinator (e.g. coordinating between public safety and other agencies), records entry (e.g. transcribing information related to the call), and any number of other tasks. In many PSAPs, there is not a one to one mapping of role to an individual person. In some PSAPs, a single person may perform anywhere from one to all the responsibilities of each role. For example, a call taker may also act as a dispatcher as well as be responsible for coordinating with public safety and other agencies.
In some cases, a caller to a PSAP may be placed on hold while the call taker attends to other responsibilities. For example, a caller, such as a caller reporting an emergency, may be placed on hold while the call taker is dispatching first responders. As another example, the call taker may need to communicate with another agency to process the call (e.g. caller reporting downed power line, call taker puts caller on hold in order to communicate with electric company).
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The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.